Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii, the Etiologic Agents of Cryptococcosis

  1. Yong-Sun Bahn6
  1. 1Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
  2. 2Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
  3. 3Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
  4. 4Unité Biologie et Pathogénicité Fongiques, Institut Pasteur, 75015 Paris, France
  5. 5Division of Cell Biology and Biophysics, School of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri 64110
  6. 6Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 120–749, Republic of Korea
  1. Correspondence: jkchung{at}niaid.nih.gov

Abstract

Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii are the two etiologic agents of cryptococcosis. They belong to the phylum Basidiomycota and can be readily distinguished from other pathogenic yeasts such as Candida by the presence of a polysaccharide capsule, formation of melanin, and urease activity, which all function as virulence determinants. Infection proceeds via inhalation and subsequent dissemination to the central nervous system to cause meningoencephalitis. The most common risk for cryptococcosis caused by C. neoformans is AIDS, whereas infections caused by C. gattii are more often reported in immunocompetent patients with undefined risk than in the immunocompromised. There have been many chapters, reviews, and books written on C. neoformans. The topics we focus on in this article include species description, pathogenesis, life cycle, capsule, and stress response, which serve to highlight the specializations in virulence that have occurred in this unique encapsulated melanin-forming yeast that causes global deaths estimated at more than 600,000 annually.

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